How much does “free” health care cost in Canada’s single-payer system?

On this blog, I’ve been consistently opposed to government intervention in health care. I arrived at this position by looking at how health care works in government-run systems like the UK’s NHS and Canada’s single-payer health care system. We’ve already discussed how NHS hospitals were paid bonuses if they got more patients to die. Now Canada is doing it.

This story is from the far-left CTV News, one of Canada’s national television news providers.

Excerpt:

An Ontario man suffering from an incurable neurological disease has provided CTV News with audio recordings that he says are proof that hospital staff offered him medically assisted death, despite his repeated requests to live at home.

Roger Foley, 42, who earlier this year launched a landmark lawsuit against a London hospital, several health agencies, the Ontario government and the federal government, alleges that health officials will not provide him with an assisted home care team of his choosing, instead offering, among other things, medically assisted death.

Foley suffers from cerebellar ataxia, a brain disorder that limits his ability to move his arms and legs, and prevents him from independently performing daily tasks.

In his lawsuit, Foley claims that a government-selected home care provider had previously left him in ill health with injuries and food poisoning. He claims that he has been denied the right to self-directed care, which allows certain patients to take a central role in planning and receiving personal and medical services from the comfort of their own homes.

[…]He is now sharing audio recordings of separate conversations he had with two health care workers at London Health Sciences Centre, where he has been stuck in a hospital bed for more than two years.

In one audio recording from September 2017, Foley is heard speaking to a man about what he has described as attempts at a “forced discharge,” with threats of a hefty hospital bill.

When Foley asks the man how much he’d have to pay to remain in hospital, the man replies, “I don’t know what the exact number is, but it is north of $1,500 a day.”

[…]“Roger, this is not my show,” the man replies. “I told you my piece of this was to talk to you about if you had interest in assisted dying.”

In a separate audio recording from January 2018, another man is heard asking Foley how he’s doing and whether he feels like he wants to harm himself.

Foley tells the man that he’s “always thinking I want to end my life” because of the way he’s being treated at the hospital and because his requests for self-directed care have been denied.

The man is then heard telling Foley that he can “just apply to get an assisted, if you want to end your life, like you know what I mean?”

And how has the government responded to the audio recordings? The same way you would expect any government to respond – with silence:

“I have not received the care that I need to relieve my suffering and have only been offered assisted dying. I have many severe disabilities and I am fully dependent. With the remaining time I have left, I want to live with dignity and live as independently as possible.”

Lawyers for the hospital were sent the audio excerpts on July 19. Foley and his lawyer have not received a response.

CTV News also asked the hospital for a statement. The hospital has not responded.

This isn’t the customer service that you would get in a capitalist free market where private sector businesses have to compete on price and quality for your dollars. This is single-payer health care. They have your money already, and they know that you can’t go anywhere else, except to leave the country. The response of the government-run health care system to requests for better care is “go kill yourself, we already have your money”.

Canadian doctors and nurse practitioners have reported that they have killed almost 4,000 (3,714) patients since euthanasia was legalized in Quebec in December 2015 — after which it was legalized throughout the country by Supreme Court fiat — an act of judicial hubris quickly formalized by Parliament.

Nearly 2,000 were killed in 2017, not including a few territories that did not report figures and assuming all euthanasia deaths were reported. All but one of these deaths resulted from a lethal jab — homicide — at the patients’ request.

[…]Note that as is the usual case, the number of doctor-facilitated deaths has increased steadily since legalization. For example, there were more than 200 more such deaths in the last six months of last year than the first.

The recordings help to explain what the phrase “at the patients’ request” really means.

Previously, I blogged about how the lack of money for palliative care is behind Canada’s push to “suggest” euthanasia to patients who ask for better palliative care. Again, what leverage do you have if you already paid them your money in taxes? You have no leverage, and they know that.

This is what happens when government taxes people when they are well, and then decides later who to give health care to, based on the politicians deciding whose votes to buy. Naturally, the young people with less problems are given “health care”, e.g. – contraceptives. abortions, sex changes, IVF, breast enlargements – because they have lots of voting ahead of them. The older people get asked to kill themselves for the good of those running this vote-buying operation.

It’s not long before a “right to die” becomes a societal expectation that the chronically ill will kill themselves to relieve their “burden” on others. The “choice” to die means very little when everyone around you is expecting that this is the only possible choice for you and to continue living would be unreasonable and “selfish.” And from there, it’s not long until they no longer even offer palliative care because so many just give in to the pressure to kill themselves. Those who might want to continue living have no other options any more. This process happens a lot faster if the government controls health care because then there is no competition and you can’t go elsewhere to look for care if you want to live.

The only defense against this is to make sure that patients keep their money in their pockets until they need care, but I know Christians, including a couple of divorced women, who are all in favor of taxing working men so that they can get what they need from government without having to care about their own choices. Look at what young women want these days. Not marriage, but taxpayer funded contraceptives, taxpayer funded abortion, taxpayer funded health care, taxpayer funded retirement. They don’t want the responsibility to make good choices about what to study, where to work, who to marry. After all if Jesus forgives them, shouldn’t we give them our money? They haven’t done anything wrong, have they?

When a nation turns to socialism and its citizens become increasingly secularized, the vulnerable of its people will be seen as burdens, therefore expendable. This is contrary to Judeo-Christian morality, where life is sacred and every person is intrinsically valuable since they are created in God’s image. Just like abortion, once it became legalized, euthanization will steadily increase in frequency.

So many tried to warn that this would happen if we legalized assisted suicide. Especially those in the disabled community, since they are usually the first ones slated for disposal, either by abortion, or through coerced “death with dignity”.

Stuff like this makes me worry about having to go to the hospital when I get older. I think a hospital should be a place where you feel safe because you are in good hands that are doing everything they can to help you. Hospitals may not be so safe anymore.

That’s why it’s so important to hold on to your money instead of blowing it all in taxes for single payer. The only leverage you will have when you need health care is a private sector health care system, and your own earned money in your pocket.